Churchill House refurbishment project

Project description

Naylors’ Building Consultancy team were instructed to project manage the internal and external repair of a Grade II listed office building and Business Centre, with retail at ground floor, within a Conservation Area in Newcastle city centre; allowing the building to remain in full occupation.

The premises comprise of a large traditionally built property. The property is of free-early Renaissance style, comprising seven stories including extensive basement accommodation, built in 1891 as a bank for Prudential Assurance Company.

The client did not have a defined repair brief; however, we undertook a full Building Survey to identify and categorise the various repairs required with works commencing in a short timescale due to financial and operational pressures.

Our role & responsibility

• Acting as lead project manager/ contract administrator in managing the project and administrating the building contract.
• Acting as lead designer to develop tender documentation and obtaining competitive tenders. Obtaining all statutory consents for the repair works.
• Acting as the CDM Co-ordinator including reviewing the contractor’s construction phase health and safety documentation and programme.
• Liaising with various members of the design team including structural engineer in order to adopt a repair method that suited and complied with the listed status and operational needs.
• Assisting the client in forming a plan of action to allow for the requirements of the occupied areas, retaining full occupation of the building throughout the works, thus limiting disruption and allowing completion.
• Assisting in developing and implementing an individual reporting and monitoring procedure throughout the works due the client’s specific requirements.
• Assisting in specifying various supplementary works’ packages during the main contracted works.
• Attending regular progress meetings to ensure that the design and detailing evolved in a manageable manner, maintaining the project budget. Issuing contract instructions in a timely manner in order to instruct the contractor of all design and specification changes.

Project results

The regular meetings allowed further client involvement and due to the nature of the scheme this allowed development of the design to ensure the repairs were efficiently and flexibly implemented, obtaining all statutory consents.

The completed scheme repaired various structural and aesthetic aspects of the property whilst the tenant and other sub-tenants remained in occupation.